A WALK WITH GHOULS, GHOSTS A.V. SCARE OFFERS A NIGHT OF FRIGHT.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

PALMDALE - There's a new mortuary in town. And while many customers are planning on visiting, be warned: The bodies in this place won't end up in the ground.

A.V. Scare co-owner Doug Barrett says going through the 2002 edition of his Halloween haunted house - which he calls ``a mortuary gone bad'' - is like living in a scary movie.

``You walk through there, you get to interact with the maniacs and the freaks. They're all in there with you; you're not just sitting in a movie theater seat somewhere,'' Barrett said. ``You get to participate and be in it.''

Operating until Nov. 2, the fifth annual A.V. Scare haunted house has set up shop next to the Funland amusement park on Avenue P-4 and Fifth Street West.

About 30 actors and actresses - mainly local teenagers done up in gruesome makeup and costumes - inhabit the 4,000-square-foot tent divided into a maze of rooms: an embalming room, a chapel, an inverted bedroom with the furniture on the ceiling. Over in the kitchen, a hand in the meat grinder is probably a good indication that all is not right.

Weaving through the maze, the tour takes visitors past hidden doors where monsters lurk. Twice the path takes brief forays outside through a graveyard decorated with decaying bodies.

Just walking through the decorated maze in daylight can be a little unnerving, admits Barrett, who relates a tale of his encounters with a stuffed dog.

``We had this big stuffed dog that we set in there for the first few days of construction and I swear every time I went by there, that thing was in a different position, even when I was the only one here,'' recalled Barrett. ``That thing was moving. So I finally got tired of it and it's out by the trailer right now. I'm not bringing it back in here.''

He added: ``All I can guess is maybe people were walking through just messing with each other. But there were a couple times when I was here by myself and that thing would have been in the corner, then it's near the front. Finally, I'm like, no, I'm not going to deal with it. I'm putting it back over there. It's a little freaky sometimes.''

A.V. Scare came into existence officially five years ago but Barrett has been creating haunted houses at his east Palmdale home for nearly 20 years.

The last Halloween he held the haunted house at his home, nearly 2,000 people showed up. Sheriff's deputies had to block off the street.

The next Halloween, Barrett partnered with Gary Scott to operate a haunted house at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

``My neighbors were really cool with all of it but I didn't want to do that to them again, so after that we started moving into some place that could handle it,'' said Barrett.

The duo have invested $80,000 into the once-a-year business. After Halloween, the equipment is crammed into three semitrailers and stored.

Barrett is hoping they might actually make some money this year.

``So far it's just fun and that's because I like it so much,'' said Barrett.

The haunted house can accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 visitors a night.

Barrett instructs the actors - mostly local teenagers - to watch for crying kids and patrons in distress.

``There's people that you can usually identify as they are coming through,'' said Barrett. ``We have a lot of people that don't make it through, they'll bail out at the first couple of exits.''

``We want people to have fun. We don't want to traumatize them, just scare them,'' said Barrett.

The haunted mortuary opens nightly at dusk tonight and Sunday, Thursday through Oct. 27, Oct. 29-31 and Nov. 1 and 2. Admission is $7.

Admission to the ``extreme scare'' at 10 p.m. Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 is $10. No one under 16 will be admitted to those shows.

A special children's matinee for youngsters age 10 and under will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 and costs $3 per person.

Anyone who brings in a Circus Vargas ticket stub will receive $2 off a Scare ticket. Discount coupons are available at their Web site: www.avscare.com. For more information, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Luna Harrell, 15, has freakish makeup applied in preparation for the fifth annual Antelope Valley Scare.

(2 -- color) A creature of the night pops out to startle visitors at the fifth annual Antelope Valley Scare.

(3 -- color) Amy Serrano, 13, left, and Jackie Sotelo, 14, make their way around a scary clown at the Antelope Valley Scare.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer